Ed Miliband is risking British job prospects by attacking the tax status of a foreign businessman who invested in this country, according to a former Labour trade minister.

Lord Jones of Birmingham, a Government trade minister in Gordon Brown's Government from 2007 to 2008, said the rhetoric from the Labour leader would drive high technology companies from Britain and that Labour now risked being painted as an “anti-business” party.

Richard Caring, a former Labour lender who is still owed money by the party, said that people might emigrate to France if Mr Miliband wins May’s election because of the party’s “cheap vote catching” attacks on the business community.

Brent Hoberman, who once sat on Mr Brown’s business council in Downing Street, added that businessmen who invested in the UK “have a right to voice their concerns”.

The businessmen spoke out amid continued fury over Mr Miliband’s attack on Stefano Pessina, the chief executive of Boots, for living in Monaco and “avoiding his taxes”.

Mr Pessina had infuriated Mr Miliband’s team by saying at the weekend that a Labour Government would be a “catastrophe” for the British economy.

But Lord Jones, who as Digby Jones was also director general of the CBI from 2000 to 2006, told The Telegraph that if Mr Miliband kept making those remarks other multi-nationals might not invest in the UK.

He said: “The trouble is if you go on like this the next investment decision from a high tech company they will go somewhere else.

“Then Mr Miliband you will reap your whirlwind and the price will be paid by some kid who is 16 today who does not get a career.

“At this moment with 90 days to go in the general election campaign if we don’t hear some serious support of the wealth creation in the nation from Labour business could not be forgiven for thinking they are anti-business.

“It is about the whole concept of a government that might get elected which is basically not getting up and supporting wealth creation.

“And if you don’t create wealth, you don’t pay tax. And if you don't pay tax, you don’t have a public sector. It is not rocket science. Every nurse, soldier, policeman, teacher in this land is paid for by the taxation that business creates.

“If we don’t start hearing Labour politicians coming out and saying that creating wealth is a good thing then I fear for the reputation of this nation in being an investment friendly place."

“Without a positive business climate in this country from the politicians you will find in a globalised competitive economy that people will not like the mood music and will go elsewhere.”

The concerns were echoed by Mr Caring, the millionaire who runs night clubs and restaurants employing 15,000 to 18,000 people in the UK, and lent Labour £2 million in the middle of the last decade.

Mr Caring, who is still owed money by the party but switched allegiances to the Tories in 2010, said: “The beating up of the industrialists or the bosses of the companies, the investors in this country, is a cheap vote-catching typical Miliband-type move.

“Labour party policy is to get elected and we don’t give a damn about anything else. And once we are in power we will try to figure out a policy because we don’t really have one.

“People say they can see Miliband as Prime Minister – honestly we will all move to Paris and live with Hollande, even though he has proved that it does not work.

“It is unfortunate because I was a Labour supporter when Tony Blair came to power with new Labour and he was much business friendly.”

Mr Caring said he was “non-domiciled” for tax purposes in the UK but had “paid in the last few years tens of millions of pounds in UK tax on UK tax occurring income”.

Mr Hoberman, who co-founded travel company Lastminute.com in 2008, added that Mr Miliband’s criticism meant that some large companies might be put off from investing in the UK in future.

“If people are investing heavily in the UK then they are entitled to have a view on how business is perceived in this country. It is important. The agenda over the last few years has been to make sure the UK is an inward investment destination.

“And so if we want a lot more inward investment, we do want the view of those businessmen who are currently investing in the UK – they have right to voice their concerns.”